And why not? It’s not just the marine environment and wildlife that’s harmed by plastic bags. True, there’s the Great Pacific Garbage Patch full of floating plastic particles to consider, and yes, there are incredibly sad and preventable stories of whales and turtles that have died with stomachs full of plastic bags.

But at the same time, regardless of location, plastic bags harm the economy, costing millions each year to be cleaned off our streets and picked out of our stormwater systems and waterways. Even when properly thrown away or recycled, they are an economic menace.

The City of San Jose spent $1 million each year to repair recycling machinery (jammed by plastic bags) when they used to pick up the bags for recycling (btw San Jose stopped this program and banned plastic bags earlier this year). And landfills can spend upwards of $100,000 each year to pick up plastic bags blowing loose around the landfills.

In Coachella Valley, two communities have taken steps to ban single-use plastic bags. Both the cities of Indio and Palm Desert have created Sustainability Commissions to consider bag ordinances. There’s been talk of working with the Coachella Valley Association of Government towards a regional ordinance. Read more here.